The Holy Apostle Andronicus and those with him
Acts 21:8-14; John 14:27-15:7
Read John 14:27-15:7
“Peace I leave to you; my peace I give to you”
There are a lot of emotions that we experience throughout our lifetime, such as fear, sadness, joy, and loneliness – emotions that may disturb and even deprive us of peace.
We can choose to hide certain emotions from those around us, however, there is nothing we can hide from the Lord Jesus Christ, for the Lord God “does not see as a mortal who sees the appearance. The Lord looks into the heart” (1 Sam 16:7).
Being greater than our hearts and knowing everything (1 Jn 3:20), God knows what our hearts need and knows how to give it.
Peace is one of our needs; peace in our hearts. This is precisely what Jesus Christ, being God of peace (1 Cor 14:33), bestowed unto the fearful apostles when He appeared to them after His glorious resurrection in the locked room: “peace be to you” (Jn 20 :19).
Our religious services are filled with reminders about peace. In fact, the first petition of our Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, for instance, is “in peace let us pray to the Lord”. The priest or the bishop multiple times turns to the faithful and greets them with the words “peace be with all”.
We are reminded by the cherubic hymn during the Divine Liturgy to lay aside all cares of life, to not worry, for soon, the consecration will take place and we will receive Christ, the Giver of peace.
It is the cares of life that can easily rob us of peace, and instill fear, loneliness, and sadness into our hearts instead.
And yet the Lord Jesus says to His disciples and to us today, in this time of much-needed peace: “Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid” (Jn 14:27), for indeed “the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4: 7).